A three-quarter length portrait set in an oval of Robert Seppings. Dating from about 1773 it shows the sitter as a child aged about six, in a beige child’s two-piece with a floppy white collar. The boy stands in a landscape holding a flintlock sporting gun which may be only a toy replica.

Seppings began his adult career as a naval architect at Plymouth. By 1804 he was Master Shipwright at Chatham and by 1813 Surveyor to the Navy. He is chiefly remembered for his successful experiments with diagonal stressing in the construction of ships. He remained the Surveyor until 1832.